Monday, April 27, 2009

Wente weekend wrapup




Team Specialized Jr 15-16 podium sweep by David Benkoski (3rd), Andrew Lanier Jr (1st), James Laberge (2nd)

and, the picture you are not seeing: Joel Shaffer doing his leadout which assisted teammate Peter Taylor in his Jr 17-18 win!



Jr 17-18 podium with Steven Larson (Rio Strada, 17 year old winner of the Cat 4 race) in 3rd, Peter Taylor on the top step and Zack Wick (Davis)

This was truly a great race to watch as the 8 junior teammates traded off attacks and counter-attacks until Andrew Lanier's solo effort brought him the win, the competition was forced to chase which set up the rest of the team for their fine placings! What a fun race to watch. Great teamwork guys!

Teamwork brought to you by Marcus, Alistair, Chris, Joel, David, James, Andrew and Peter!

Photos by Glyn Taylor

1st loser?



photo by Glyn Taylor

2nd place, or, the "1st loser" spot on the podium at the Wente Crit.

Admittedly its a strange result. The beauty of a second place finish is that it can fire you up to do one better, to analyze what went right and wrong and what you might have done differently.

Bubba Melcher (Clover) went for the first prime of the race (6 minutes into a 45 minute race) so I just had to follow that move. I pipped him at the line for a nice $50 Wente Gift Certificate! and we had a gap so we rolled. Wisely Bubba and I waited for a Morgan Stanley and VOS rider so that our break might have a better chance. When Joe Saunders (MS) and Rich Juarez (VOS) joined us we were off to the races. Establishing the gap was the hard part (~2:35 laps), then things started to smooth out (~2:40 laps), but then the attacks started coming and we slowed (~2:45 laps) and the pack was on our heals. Joe had been dropped in one of Bubba's explosive attacks, so Morgan Stanley was chasing hard. Both Budda and Rich had teammates in the field and they played that card well. I was alone against 99 riders so I got a bit impatient and ended up leading it out too soon and got nipped at the line by Bubba.

Sad about not winning? Nah, I love this sport!

Friday, April 24, 2009

Sea Otter Classic



Front page of the Monterey sports page!

Mountain bike racing is alive and well! That's the feeling you get after spending the weekend at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey. Full fields, hundreds of athletes and a well attended expo. But, where are all the roadies? Fields were less than half full at the most and the courses could handle a lot more athletes (unlike the cross country mountain bike courses, in my opinion). I'm guessing here but I think athletes shy away from this event because they don't see the full picture. Firstly, roadies have become "spoiled" competing for cash. What a silly notion for an amateur/ hobbyist! If roadies looked at running, triathlon or even mountain bike racing events they would see that only Pros compete for money. Secondly, someone has to pay for the groundwork that creates the fun that is Sea Otter. $45, in my opinion, was a better value than an industrial park crit. It was a privilege to race on the Laguna Sega track!

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Sea Otter Road Race 15-16

  The SRAM Road race took place on the property of Fort Ord. We started out with a neutral section of 4.5 miles to enter on the 8.5 mile loop. The loop had a 300 ft climb at the start, then rolling hills for about 7 miles and ended with a descent. We had to complete 5 laps and then ride 2 miles uphill to the finish.

  When we got to the climb on the first loop, one guy attacked and set a hard pace to the top of the hill. The field stayed together and on the rolling hills section, more attacks came. I stayed behind David and Marcus who chased down the attacks.

When we had finished one lap, more people began to attack on the climb. I attacked too, and got away but I was caught at the top of the climb. However when the field caught me there were only 8-10 guys left.

 We started riding really fast on the rolling hills and Yuma from San Jose Bike Club and Andrew Lanier got away on one of the hills and started working together. Meantime, in the pack the only Team Swift was chasing while I sat behind their wheel resting. 

With a little less than four laps to go, I broke away on the feed hill. I did not need any water so I moved to the opposite side of the feed and kept going at a fast pace. When I got to the top I was about seven bike lengths ahead of the pack.

  I decided to leave them behind and try to get to Andrew and Yuma. I caught them before we had to descend down the hill. We started working together and we were gaining on the field and on some sections the field couldn't see us at all and I remembered what Marcus said to me at the start of the race, ''Out of sight, out of mind.''   
 
On the next climb Yuma went hard and I followed him and we dropped Andrew. Then I worked with Yuma for the rest of the lap. With two laps to go, Yuma made a mistake on the descent and went too wide and ended up in the dirt. I passed him and broke away. I rode the last two laps by myself and won the race. 

Three things were very important in the race: my team mates helped me and blocked for me, I attacked at the right moment, and my super light and stiff Specialized Tarmac SL made the climbing very easy.

 

Sunday, April 12, 2009

15-16 Copperopolis

We did 2 laps and had 6 of us from Specialized. We planned for Alistair to attack on the first climb. He did but didn't get away and continued trying. This was great because it split the group and after the climb, we had a 7 man break. In the break was: Alistair, Andrew, me, Torrey (davis), a Whole Athlete rider, Yuma (San Jose), Bjorn (AC). We worked well together through the end of the lap. On the next climb Torrey and Whole Athlete attacked on the climb. Andrew and Yuma were dropped. I almost was dropped and had to work hard to stay with them over the top. We worked well together through the flats. On the last two rollers Alistair didn't attack but went hard up them wearing them out which told me who was still strong. On the last climb Whole Athlete attacked. Bjorn and I worked hard to stay with them but couldn't. They looked around at the top and I caught back up. We went down the hill and near the bottom looked around again. I was looking back and saw Bjorn speeding down the hill and pass us but we were 1.5km from the finish and I wasn't worried but everyone else got scared and chased. We caught him with 1km to go. I got on Torrey's wheel and waited for 150 m. He went with 250 m and I followed him. He beat me and I finished 2nd.

What helped:
I got tested at Standford 2 weeks ago and knew my T2. I made sure I was under my threshold during the flats.

The bike was stiff through all the bumps and I could pedal through them.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Tiger on fire

Today was the Napa GP with a crazy "P" turn. In the masters 35+ race we had the delight of having Mike Sayers (Amgen) in the field. Chris Phipps (Morgan Stanley) joined Sayers in lapping the field leaving only leftovers for the offering. In the end we had a field sprint for which I won but since Sayers and Phipps were a lap up I was 3rd.

It was 2 + hrs until the next race, A reverse win and out. I spent the time getting a massage,$5 for 15 minutes. In the race you sprint at 5 to go for 5th, 4 to go for 4th and so on. It was actually fun except that local racer Shawn Oliver (Morgan Stanley) broke his hip when he crashed in the P-turn. In the end 4 guys went up the road which was perfect to allow for a field sprint for the win. But one guy went across leaving me out of the placings. Now was when it started to get fun. You have 2 choices here. Try to bridge up or wait to see if your group catches back up. One tactic is to leavethe 5th rider out in the wind for the whole last lap and hope youcatch his tired legs before the line. The first sprint went un-contested. The second as well. The third one was a hotly contested sprint that left one rider still without any reserves and he quickly came back to our group and right out the other side. This allowed me to follow wheels until the final lap where the race was mine. Victory at last. I topped off the day heading back for another massage and then heading to Down Town Joes for a good dinner and a few drinks with my youngest son. This has been a good few weeks with wins at Madera Stage race, LandPark and now Napa. Next stop Sea Otter.